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California Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking to overhaul the state's education funding system in part by giving school districts greater autonomy in how they spend their money and directing more money to low-income students and English-language learners. The proposal follows a ballot initiative in which voters approved additional funding for schools.

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A growing number of US mainland school districts are recruiting teachers from Puerto Rico to teach English-language learners. Data show about 16,000 teachers came to the US from Puerto Rico and Latin America between 2008 and 2013.

School districts nationwide are struggling to keep up with ever-changing technology and with students' increasingly high expectations for classroom tech. Gene Carter, executive director and CEO of ASCD, said students expect the same technology in school that they have access to outside of school and at home. "One of the big criticisms of many schools is that they are not authentic learning institutions because what happens outside the schoolhouse differs significantly from what students are exposed to," he said.

San Diego-area educators trained to teach the International Baccalaureate program say its inquiry-style lessons share some of the rigorous requirements of Common Core State Standards. "It's the exact same intent, and in some cases the same wording as well," said David Weber, an IB math teacher at the Preuss School-University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif. However, some IB proponents say they worry the common core's focus on standardized tests might diminish IB's use of portfolio assessments to gauge student learning.

A Facebook page maintained by the British Council, which seeks to teach English-language skills to students in the Middle East and North Africa, has more than 1 million "likes." However, officials say the challenge will be in translating the popularity of the page into learners. Some say the initiative relies largely on the quality of the materials accessible to students through the site.

The Republican education platform released Tuesday at the party's National Convention in Tampa, Fla., endorses school choice as playing a critical role in school improvement and does not foresee any education funding increase. The priorities are similar to those of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The platform also touches on promoting more rigorous standards, technical education, family literacy and supports English immersion instead of bilingual programs for English-language learners.